Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/141

Rh And away she ran as fast as ever her legs could carry her.

The Fool meanwhile began pulling at the rope, while the goat, which evidently did not like the position it was placed in, cried out,—

"Me-ke-ke! Me-ke-ke! Me-ke-ke!" as loud as ever it could.

"What on earth are you making all that row about?" asked the Fool, thinking it was Alyonushka whom he was drawing up. "My brothers will be sure to hear you if you keep going on like that, and will murder you."

But the goat cared little for what the Fool said, and went on crying all the louder—"Me-ke-ke! Me-ke-ke!"

The Fool at last pulled up the rope, but what was his fright at beholding the goat and not his wife.

"Oh! the bad girl," he cried, "she has run away, and cheated me after all."

When morning came the robbers went up to the little room to fetch Alyonushka.

"Where is your young wife?" they asked.

"Gone!" said the Fool.

"We told you so, we said she would be sure to run away if we did not kill her at once, but you would save her. O, you Fool, you Fool! you really are a Fool. But we must lose no time, we must chase her and catch her."

So they mounted their horses, and rode off with their dogs, after Alyonushka.

Meanwhile the girl had run a good way, when she